First there was The Purge, and now there’s The Binge—you know, like “binge and purge.” Get it?! There, you’re all caught up on the clever wordplay of the title for the new Hulu original movie, which debuts on August 28. The film takes place in a future where all alcohol and drugs are illegal except for one night a year. And on that night, the United States proves that shit could, indeed, be extremely worse based on some of the imagery in this trailer—specifically the shots of absolute swarms of people getting hammered in the streets as far as the eye can see. If you live in a major city with a bar-heavy downtown overpopulated by tourists and college kids who vomit with abandon on sidewalks, then you are undoubtedly familiar with this scenario. But the trailer for The Binge multiplies it by 100, and when you add our current pandemic to the equation, the whole thing is enough to induce a panic attack:
But, you know, other than all of that, this movie looks kind of funny. We’re at a point where the rowdy teen comedy has been forced to adapt in order to survive. The novelty of watching a bunch of teens fuck up and get wasted and try to lose their V-cards just because it’s prom night or whatever wore off a while back. This is how we got the excellent Booksmart. And while The Binge doesn’t look as, well, smart as Olivia Wilde’s film, it looks enjoyable enough and has a likable cast, which is about all anyone can ask of a movie in 2020.
The Binge stars Vince Vaughn, Skyler Gisondo (who was also in Booksmart!), Dexter Darden, and Eduardo Franco and his magnificent hair (…also in Booksmart… are you sensing a pattern?), and was directed by Jeremy Garelick—who produced the recent Hulu comedy Big Time Adolescence.